Public service revolution

Alexandra Smith, Sean Nicholls, Phillip Coorey

THE O'Farrell government has moved to seize control of the wages and conditions of more than 400,000 public servants in what unions and Labor have described as NSW's version of Work Choices.

Under a bill introduced to Parliament last night, the government would be granted the power to not only stipulate wage rises but also other conditions including leave entitlements.

The Industrial Relations Commission would be stripped of its independent power and forced to abide by any government policy on employment conditions for public servants in a regulation issued by the Finance Minister.

The Opposition Leader, John Robertson, said the changes were ''worse than Work Choices''.

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''Barry O'Farrell has outdone John Howard and Peter Costello with this unprecedented attack on the rights at work of nurses, teachers and police,'' he said.

''Every single condition of employment is now at risk including wages, penalty rates, nurse ratios, shift allowances, sick leave, long service leave and maternity leave.''

Mr Robertson said the bill could ''reduce annual leave entitlements for nurses, teachers and police, and the independent umpire would be bound to enforce it''.

The police union said its members may march on Parliament. ''If they think the solar scheme is a big issue, wait until they see police in full action,'' said the president of the Police Association of NSW, Scott Weber.

The secretary of Unions NSW, Mark Lennon, said if the laws were passed in their current form, the government would have a blank cheque to determine workplace rights and conditions for its own employees.

Mr Lennon said the proposal represented the most radical change to workplace laws in more than a century and would see the commission banned from enforcing existing awards.

"This is an unprecedented assault on the rights of public sector workers to have their day in court to determine their wages and conditions," Mr Lennon said.

A spokesman for the Finance Minister, Greg Pearce, declined to comment on the claims the bill empowered the government to alter any employment conditions and insisted it was designed to ensure its wages policy was followed.

''Anything in the bill is done to give effect to the wages policy,'' the spokesman said.

In his speech to Parliament last night, Mr Pearce acknowledged the bill needed to be broad enough to ''enable all relevant elements of the public sector wages policy to be included'' and as a result could refer to ''relevant conditions of employment such as increased leave entitlements or a new classification structure''.

The Greens' industrial relations spokesman, David Shoebridge, said the bill would be hugely detrimental to workers.

''The government's attack on the commission, if successful, will have profound implications for the ability of unions and public sector associations to argue for fair and reasonable salaries and conditions,'' he said.

Meanwhile, a dozen public-sector agencies covering more than 100,000 workers will seek intervention today from the national industrial umpire, Fair Work Australia, after negotiations with the federal government broke down. The 12 agencies are part of a push by 74 public-sector agencies for 15 key conditions as part of new three-year collective agreements.